


Like Magic

by wattyford



Category: Carry On - Rainbow Rowell, Simon Snow series - Gemma T. Leslie
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-14 12:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 16,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5743849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wattyford/pseuds/wattyford
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simon Snow thought he was the worst chosen one to ever be chosen. But now it turns out, he might not have been chosen after all. Not that that matters to Simon anymore. He has everything he needs; Baz by his side and Penny as his right hand man (woman?).<br/>Until it happens.<br/>Until his magic comes back.<br/>Which would be a good thing, if he wasn't so worried about creating a new hole. A new Insidious Humdrum. To top it all off, someone's picking off members of the Old Families' one by one, and their supporters are going into hiding, while the followers of The Mage are rising up instead... Baz is determined to protect Simon this time, even if it means doing something he won't like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Beginning, A New Date

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rainbow Rowell  
> Note: Some of these spells belong to Rainbow. Some are of my own invention.  
> This is post-Carry On, as in, my version of the sequel.  
> Carry on.

1  
Simon  
Living with Penelope is different than living with Baz. For starters, she actually eats food. It’s strange (even though everyone eats… I guess Baz not eating in front of people is what’s actually odd) watching her eat cereal and check her phone. I got one too after we left Watford, and I insisted Baz got one too. I don’t think he texts anyone else besides me, though. A soggy bowl of cereal is staring up at me expectantly. I try to hide my obvious ‘wow that’s gross’ face, but like always, I fail. Great snakes, I miss sour cherry scones. But she has to make everything with magic, as neither of us can cook, and making breakfast takes a lot of power.  
Sigh.  
“Sighing every minute isn’t going to make him get here faster,” Penelope cocked an eyebrow as she stirred her cereal distastefully. She tucked a strand of plum purple hair behind her ear. It’s the same purple as her ring. She magicked it when we moved in together, claiming that she needed a new look for her new life.  
I sighed again, and she cocked an eyebrow that practically went to her hairline. “Turn that frown upside down,” she waved her fat purple ring in my face. Reluctantly, a smile forced its way onto my face. I feel like a goblin, except without the lime green color.  
I must look like one too, because she snorts and spits out her cereal with laughter. My smile is stretched too far up and my teeth feel like they’ve been replaced with dentures. I try to make another expression, but it’s rather stuck, like someone smeared super glue over my face.  
Ugh, look at me, comparing magic to mundane things. Baz only just found out what super glue is- the hard way, he glued his hands together.  
A sudden emptiness hits my stomach as I wish I could cast back, “Why the long face?” But I was never good at that one anyways. I was never good at magic in general, really. I was white light, too bright and painful, and Baz was my prism, separating me into vibrant colors. But that’s all gone now, of course. But I’m doing okay, adjusting. Eating cereal instead of scones, dressing like a Normal and not in my Watford uniform, hiding my wings and tail every day like a good boy.  
Maybe she sees all of this in my eyes, because she. She eats her cereal again, guilty.  
“I’m sorry,” she began. “I didn’t mean-”  
I nod, and I can feel my curls bouncing. “No, I miss magic, it’s not that I want less…it’s just…”  
“I know, Simon,” she says solemnly. And that’s how I know I’m bad- Penny’s never this somber. I was dragging her down with my Normalness, probably Baz too… If he was hear he would shake his head ruefully and kiss me and say the ‘I love you’s and the ‘It’s not your fault’s and then he would repeat what he had been saying from day one- “You’re still the greatest mage.”  
Because Baz believed I was the mage, as in the prophesized one, The Chosen One. But spells feel like words to me now. I don’t get a buzz in my fingertips or go off. I don’t hear power in my voice. Saying a spell is like mouthing the words, or talking underwater. It doesn’t count, because I’m no longer one of them. A mage. A month after it happens, I tried “Up, up, and away,” but nothing happened. It didn’t feel like, “Up, up, and away,” it felt like, “Up, up, and away.”  
I know more than anyone that there are downs to being a mage, or whatever I was. The Insidious Humdrum, for one. I decided when I gave him my power, when I poured all of it into him, when I filled the hole that’s been eating away at Britain since I was eleven, that I would rather have no powers and no Humdrum than be a mage with the Insidious Humdrum.  
The doorbell rings, cutting me off from my thoughts and gross cereal. I leapt out of my chair, knocking it over in the process.  
Penelope stifles laughter behind me, and I’m tearing towards the door, but I’m really just walking. Before I reach it, it flies open, hitting the wall.  
A real smile grows on my face this time. He must have used “Open Sesame,” the drama queen. Just like the day he came back in our eighth year.  
“Snow,” he smiles at me, all dark eloquent hair and a pale face pretty enough to kiss. His grey eyes flicker with life, when he looks at me, like a flame. He’s wearing jeans. My grin widens.  
“Baz,” I say. I know it’s only been two days, but it’s felt like a century. Our relationship has become slightly more…co-dependent, and reasonably so, after our eighth year. Not that I’m complaining. Baz is amazing.  
“Shall we?” He gestures towards the door, formally and I laugh, dropping to a bow.  
“Yes, good sir,” I hold out my arm and he takes it. He smiles and his teeth flash in the light, his canines still a little sharper than a Normals if you looked hard enough.  
“Merlin’s beard, you’ve been dating for a year this isn’t your first date,” Penny says jokingly. I didn’t even realize she had joined us, I was too focused on Baz. She pushed us out the door. “Go have fun. Simon, you better be back by eleven, or I swear I will go out and find-”  
“I know the drill, Bunce,” Baz winked as he pulled the door shut.


	2. Snow and Ice

2  
Baz  
Snow’s hair looks gold when it hits the light. It’s as wild as ever. If he hasn’t brushed it in days, I wouldn’t be surprised.   
“Where are we going?” He asked, taking a noticeably deep whiff of my neck.  
“Did you just smell me?” The corner of my mouth quirked upwards.   
“I can’t help it,” he said, obviously flustered. His cheeks started to flush, a cherry red spreading from his neck to his cheeks, making it look like he’s been dusted with soft red air brush. Only Snow could make embarrassed look good. I shake my head. “You smell like your posh soap,” he buries his head in my neck.  
A laugh escapes from my throat. This still felt like a dream, walking with Snow, going places, having him on my arm and me wrapped around his little finger. I was in a Technicolor movie, everything prettier and faster and more wonderful-  
Well.  
Mostly wonderful.  
You can only expect things to be so great after what happened. The Humdrum. The Mage. Watford days gone and behind us. It’s only been six months and already it seems far away…  
But Snow is here, so I focus on him. Fuck Watford. It’s done, there’s no going back. Fuck the Insidious Humdrum, Snow defeated him. And for good measure, fuck The Mage.  
I’ve always hated The Mage anyways.  
But Simon didn’t. Simon loved him like he was his own father, and the fact that Simon took a part in his death nearly destroyed him.   
I take Simon’s arm from mine and grab his hand tightly instead. His eyes go wide at my grip, asking ‘Are you okay?’ I nod and rub my thumb over his knuckles in slow comforting circles, probably to comfort myself more than him.   
“I have a surprise for you,” I say smoothly, trying to conceal my own excitement. I know he’ll love it, it’ll be great, just perfect, and the two of us like it never was then and like how it will always be now.  
“Really?” Snow’s practically bouncing. His head turns side to side and I catch a glimpse of a sharp collarbone poking out from his sweater. God, has Penelope been feeding him at all? I make a note to make sure he eats while we’re out. Maybe I can make scones for him, Snow would go crazy for that.  
“It’s not that far of a walk, and it’s not anything like you’re probably expecting,” I smile.  
We walk for a while, the sidewalk glinting sunlight beneath our feet. I insist we stop at Starbucks before though, not just because I’m craving a Pumpkin Mocha Breve (but partly because of that) but because I want to make sure he eats something. When we finally leave, I make sure Snow ate his two cinnamon rolls and three chocolate chip muffins. We walk two more blocks and then there it is.  
“Ice skating?” He beams like the sun, and it takes all of my power to not kiss him senseless.  
“Do you like it?”   
“Of course, are you kidding?” He laughs and pulls me inside.  
It’s cold but he doesn’t seem to mind and I certainly don’t. I drape my black coat over him after we’ve laced up our skates anyways. He nearly fell the first time he stood up and once we got on the ice, he was like a spider with roller skates on.  
He immediately leeched onto the wall, and I took his hand instead. “Come on, Snow, I’ve got you,” and I push off the wall. I feel like we’re in space, like when Snow gave me his magic so I cast, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.” Everything is shiny and too good to be true, too grand for my half-life.   
Ice skating is one of the Normal things I’m actually accustomed to. It helped me with football, balance and grace and all of shit. Snow once told me how graceful he thought I was, and how he would watch me play. It was kind of stalkery, how he followed me around. But also hot. So.   
“You’re graceful,” he had said.  
I cocked an eyebrow. “Graceful?”  
“Like a ballerina.”  
I laughed so hard I thought my smile was going to be permanent.  
Snow sliding onto his ass sends me back into reality. I pull him back up, saying, “I’ve got you,” but he’s dying of laughter. He’s obviously never done this. His grip tightens on my hand and he’s staring down as his feet as if they just grew there and he’s never seen them before.  
We skate for an hour or so, maybe longer. Okay, maybe all night. But he finally got the hang of it and it was like watching a child take its first steps. How could I tell him Penelope wanted him home when he was looking at me like that?  
“Look, Baz, Merlin, I’m-I’m skating!” Snow skate a small circle around me, that quickly began to widen as he started to lose control. I reached out and grabbed his hand.  
“Don’t go too far.”  
“Never.”  
I took him back to his flat at three.  
“Goodnight, Snow,” I said, standing outside, unwilling to go inside and face the wrath of Penelope. Great snakes, she was going to kill me.  
“Baz?” He whispers, and I think something’s wrong. This is it, he’s done with me, I’m a vampire, I’m a monster, he’s come to his fucking senses, I understand of course I understand.  
“Yeah?” I say, my voice more delicate than I’d intended it to be.  
“Stay.” I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it. I nearly let out a sigh of relief right then and there. I prepare myself to decline, ‘No Snow, you need sleep, and Penelope is already pissed,’ but his marvelous, magic blue eyes are staring up at me and I smile, forgetting about Penny and the yelling I’ll have to endure.   
“Of course,” I say, and he opens the door.   
That’s how I ended up in Snow’s bed. His wings folded so not to hit me in the face (that’s happened a lot), his tail wound around my thigh. Our legs were tangled together, my arms wrapped around his waist, his chest rising slowly with each breath. His warm breath on my neck, his tawny moled skin intertwined with my deathly pale one, bronze next to black, blue next to grey, us and us and us and us and Snow everywhere. Slowly I drift off to sleep, and I know for once, it will be dreamless.


	3. The Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to keep track of updates of Like Magic, follow my Tumblr account @sourcherrysimonsnow

3

Simon

Penelope is going to kill Baz. When I finally wake up, the bed is empty. I inhale and it still smells like Baz. Their voices are loud in the kitchen and I drag myself out of bed and pad towards the kitchen, yawning, and my eyes still bleary and tired with sleep.

“WHEN DID YOU EVEN GET HOME?” She was standing on the chair, facing him, looking crazed. “Why are you standing on a chair?” I mumbled, blinking at the harsh light of the kitchen. “

She wants to be as tall as me,” Baz grinned, slipping an arm around my waist and kissing my cheek.

She huffed indignantly and jumped down. “I was worried.”

She had the right to be, I suppose. Considering everything. “Look, I’m fine,” I point out, and she sighs. “Baz is fine,” I add, because I know she wasn’t just worried about me. I don’t quite understand their friendship, but I know it’s strong and strange. They have a lot more in common than I originally thought. Both have powerful parents. Both didn’t like The Mage. Both extremely and unreasonably protective of me since last year. I can figure stuff out on my own. After all, I’m seeing a Normal therapist (which is more than Baz is doing; I don’t know how he copes).

“But something could have-” she begins, but Baz cut her off.

“But it didn’t, “he says softly, trying to comfort her. “We’re all okay.”

She takes a deep breath and nods. “I suppose.”

“How about we all do something together, today?” I suggest, but Baz’s face falls.

“I wish I could, love, but I have class in an hour,” Baz attends some magic college. The name is weird for me to remember, but it’s very prestigious and only the best of the best get in. Penelope could have gotten in if she wanted to, though, but she wanted to take a year off. “It’s okay, I’ll see you tomorrow.” He nods, and gives me a pained look when he leaves.

“Do you want to play in the snow?” Penelope suggested. “What?” I say loudly as I run to the window. Snow covered the ground in a lush, sparkling, white pillow. ‘Ha, Snow in the snow,’ Baz would probably laugh. He’s been gone for one minute and I’m already imagining what he would say if he was here.

“It snowed like crazy last night, that’s why I was so worried,” she explains as I pull on gloves in a puffy jacket. I feel like a boulder of sweater, so I put on a windbreaker and a scarf instead. Penelope puts on snow boots and we wade out in the snow together. It goes half way up to my calves. I shiver a little in the cold. If Baz was at a Normal college, no doubt classes would be cancelled today. Snow hits my shoulder and I whirl around. Penny is laughing and I scoop up a ball of it and toss it right back. It turns into an all-out war. We built forts and we’re hurling snowballs, laughing so hard you could hear us from a block away. When I stand up, a snowball is barreling its way towards my face.

“ **Upupandaway** ,” I say quickly.

The snowball stops and inch from my nose.

Penelope lets out a shocked gasp.

My mouth falls open.

It levitates in the air, awaiting my command. My eyes are almost crossed from trying to focus on it. I take a step back, and eventually, it falls. "Simon, did you just- did you?" Penelope splutters out, her hands covering her mouth.

I slowly nod

And I nod again.

_I’m back._


	4. Second Chance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me @sourcherrysimonsnow on Tumblr for updates

4  
Baz  
“You did what?” This is not happening. No. It isn’t. It simply, in the easiest terms, cannot happen.  
Simon was the greatest mage. But now his power is gone. Gone. But here he was, performing spells and who knows what else.   
What did this mean?  
Was this how the Insidious Humdrum was going to return? A faulty snowball incident? This snowball was going to hit me in the face so I accidentally ripped a hole into the magickal atmosphere. I shut my eyes tightly and my hold on the phone is so strongly I’m worried for a second that I’m going to crush it. Thank Merlin Snow made me get one. If he hadn’t, would I have to wait all day to hear this? Would Penny have to possess another dog? Who knows how long it would take for me to get the message?   
I imagine Snow at home, no doubt freaking the fuck out, losing his mind, thinking that it’s starting again- I need to leave.  
“I stopped the snowball, Baz,” Snow’s voice shakes like a leaf over the phone. “I used up, up, and away and it worked.”  
“I’m coming over,” I say flatly.  
“No, you have-”  
“I’m coming.”  
“Okay.”  
Penelope is standing in the doorway when I arrive. Her usually brown face is looking especially pale. Her dark purple hair is matted and covered in melting snowflakes.  
“Where is he?” I ask, running inside.  
And then there’s Snow, a cup of tea in his hands, staring blankly at it as steam rises. His hands are shaking so hard he’s going to spill it.  
“Oh, Snow,” I sit and wrap my arms around him and he ducks his head. I carefully extract the tea from him and place it on the coffee table. We don’t need another accident today.  
“I don’t want the Hum-” his voice breaks and so does my heart. Instead he says, “him. I don’t want it to come back.”  
“I know,” I cradle him in my arms and Penelope sniffles loudly.   
But Snow doesn’t feel like he used to. He doesn’t buzz like a phone going off. He hasn’t caught anything on fire. I’m not magickally drawn to him like a magic magnet. He’s still Simon.  
I look to Penny. Her eyes are welling up with tears behind her cat eye glasses. “Have there been any…”  
She shakes her head, and I close my eyes, nodding. Since last year, the holes have slowly been retreating, or shrinking, or whatever it is they do. Even the one on my old house is getting smaller. I was worried that there was going to be a new hole. A new Humdrum. Instead there was nothing, which was even stranger still.   
“It was reflex, I didn’t…” Snow says, his face pressed into my shoulders. “I didn’t mean to.”  
“I know,” I say softly, because there isn’t anything else to say.   
It isn’t like there’s anyone else we can ask. No one understands why it happened or how. Penelope’s father, who was obsessed with the Humdrum, is still baffled, as is everyone else. Perhaps only the Mage understood. Perhaps even he didn’t know either.   
“Simon, I think you should try,” Penelope says quietly, sitting down next to us.  
His head whips upwards, a snarl on his face like I’ve never seen, his lip curled viciously. Penny step backs shocked, but then the expression falters and he cries instead. I pull him closer towards me, like I can shield him from himself.  
He isn’t an ugly crier. He doesn’t go red and his eyes don’t get puffy. Silent tears track down his face and I rub them off with my thumbs. Maybe it would be better if he properly cry, but all he’s managed to do since it happened is this.  
“Try, try, w-what exactly?” Snow says with enough anger as he can manage, but it comes out as a sob instead. “Believe me, w-whatever you’re thinking P-Penny, I’ve al-already thought o-of,” he hiccupped. And there it is. The barrier’s gone. My poor Snow, what did they do to you? Why couldn’t the world just leave you alone?  
“I only meant that you should try another spell. Maybe it’s gone. A one-time thing.”  
“And what if I accidentally,” he paused. “Make a hole. Or him.”  
“I don’t think you will,” I say, and he looks at me confusedly. “You don’t feel like you did then.”  
He nods, and I let go off him. He stands up like a fawn standing for the first time, his legs practically vibrating, knees knocking into each other. I steady him and go to his room to the top drawer of his dresser. In it, is The Mage’s wand. Simon’s was stepped on in the chaos of it all, but The Mage’s was fine. And Simon had loved him the most, so I thought the least I could do was to give it to him as a keepsake.  
I walk back and hand it to him and he takes it. “What should I say?” He whispers.  
“Try the same spell,” I whisper, standing back.  
Hand shaking, he points the wand at the vase. “Up, up, and away.” Up it went, floating in the air patiently, awaiting further instruction. I don’t know who’s more shocked. Simon dropped the wand and stared. Penny made it float back onto the mantle, and Snow sank into the couch.   
I touch his arm. “I think,” I say softly into his ear. “That you’re still a mage. But now, you have power like Penelope and I. Not prophesized power, but power all the same, love.”  
“Really?” I can hear the hope in his voice. I hope for his sake that I’m right.   
“It would make sense,” Penelope said. “Perhaps you really did have magician parents, Simon.”  
“Try to push your magic into me,” I push up my sleeve as he shakes his head. “It’s the only way to know.”  
He tries. Nothing. He smiles faintly. “I’m a mage.”  
I kiss his head.   
“I want to go to school with you,” he says immediately. “I want to go to college, I’m tired of sitting around waiting for you to do something with me or Penelope to take me somewhere,” he stood up, eyes blazing, hands no longer shaking. “I want to learn magic again, the right way, like I didn’t before.”  
“Of course, Snow, of course. We’ll go to Arlington’s together, you’ll love it,” I turn to Penny expectedly and so does Snow.  
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?” She furrows her brow.  
“Go to college with us,” he says.  
“No,” she says, crossing her arms.  
“Come with us, Bunce, what are you scared of?” I say.  
“No.”  
“Please?” I never say please.  
“Fine.”  
This was it. How it was supposed to be. Snow was back. This was our second chance at everything we’ve ever wanted.


	5. Brutal Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me @sourcherrysimonsnow on Tumblr for updates

5  
Simon  
Baz is burning. There’s fire everywhere. Smoke clouds my vision and floods into my nostrils. I feel like I’m choking, but it’s nothing compared to the sight of Baz at my feet, motionless. Flames lick up his hands, his arms, his legs, engulfing him, until it’s all red and orange and yellow and black and smoke and fire. It’s in the trees, it’s in Watford. I hear a bounce. Another bounce, like the piercing sound of gunfire. I feel the dry, sucking feeling. A red ball rolls to my feet. The Insidious Humdrum is in front of me laughing at me, laughing at Baz burning, at Watford falling... I’m screaming, but no words come out. I can’t see Baz anymore. Watford is ash. Penny is nowhere in sight.  
“It’s all dead,” The Humdrum bounces his ball. “They’re all dead, and all the magic is gone, because of you. Just a hungry, grubby, little Normal The Mage pitied.”  
Then The Mage is at my feet, dying, screaming my name. I hear Baz in the distance saying my name…  
I wake up in a cold sweat. My fingers clawed at the sheets. Baz is standing above me, a worried expression on his face. “Are you okay, love?” He asks as he sits on the bed. I nod.  
“You kept saying my name,” he says, pulling my chin up so I look at him.   
“I dream about terrible things, Baz,” I whisper. “Terrible, terrible things.”  
“Me too,” Baz intertwines his fingers in mine and we stare at our hands. “Me too.”  
Baz took one look at my skinny frame and said “You look like a rod, Snow, have you been eating at all?” He’s one to talk, he looks sickly, almost as bad as he did when he escaped from the numpties.   
“How about,” he breathes into my ear. “We make sour cherry scones?”  
I forgot about the dream, the memory slipping as I tackle him with kisses and throw him on the bed. He laughs and kisses me back hard. Baz told me I was his first kiss that one fateful night, but I can’t tell, I think he’s bloody fantastic at it.   
“Scones don’t have anything on you, Baz.” I smile into his lips.  
He raises an eyebrow. “Really? I could have sworn you loved them more-”  
I kiss his neck, right between the edge of his jaw and his ear. “Really.”   
I angle his face to meet mine and it’s soft and wonderful and then it’s hard and vicious and wanting and everything we’ve been scared to say to each other.  
“I love you,” I say but it comes out as a kiss.  
Kissing Baz is different than kissing Agatha for a lot of reasons. His mouth is cold and mine is warm and his lips are lie ice and I like to kiss them until they’re raw and pink and warm. Agatha’[s mouth was small and we never did all of this. Little pecks, kisses on cheeks and foreheads and noses, but never this hungry or full of wanting. I felt like if I kissed Agatha too hard, she would shatter like a fragile tea cup. But Baz encourages it, he pushes back, and I jut my chin out and turn my head and kiss him again and again and again and again. I’m careful to mind his fangs. Sometimes they pop when we’re kissing, but I don’t mind. I like how edgy they make him look, like I’m seeing another side of him I rarely get a glimpse at. Sometimes when I’m kissing him like this, I don’t want to stop ever.  
Penny wakes up not long after that. Her hair is wild, a giant purple cloud around her face, but mine always is just as bad, so I can’t say anything. She gives a small smile to the pile of ingredients lining the counter. “Making scones?”  
“Only if you help,” I toss her a bag of flour and she laughs when she nearly misses. Baz grabs a bowl (he knows where everything is in the flat, he’s here half the time anyways) and soon the kitchen is full of the absolute beautiful scent I associate with my scones.   
“Simon, a smell can’t be beautiful, beauty is a thing you look at, not sniff,” Penny had said in our second year.  
“Smell this,” I lifted a scone to her nose. “Tell me this doesn’t smell beautiful.”  
We ended up making three batches and I eat nearly half of them, each scone absolutely drenched in butter.   
“I hope you have more butter, Bunce, because he’s going to eat it all,” Baz grinned.  
“It’s not that much,” I say, but my mouth is so full it comes out as, “Mphh hmp hhhpp mmphrm.”  
Penelope’s face suddenly grows serious as she sits next to me. The scones feel like rocks in my stomach. Doubts begin to fill my head, taunting and jabbing at me, each one as sharp as a blade. There’s a hole. The Humdrum’s back. There’s a hole. The Humdrum’s back.  
“I think we should tell someone your magic is back,” she says suddenly. Baz drops the plate he’s holding and it shatters into hundreds of pieces.   
“Why on earth,” he says quietly. “Would we jeopardize him like that?”  
“We wouldn’t put him in danger-” Penelope scoffs, but I interrupt her.  
“Why would that put me in danger?” I ask, and then I hear how stupid sound. Of course The World of Mages would be shocked at the return of my power. Some might claim I never gave it to the Humdrum, and that I am him, and I’m biding my time to strike again…  
Of course I’m in danger now. This changes everything that happened last year, all the testimonies we worked so hard to get everyone to believe, my getting off free of charge for the death of The Mage…  
No one says anything as Baz sits down next to me and Penny magicks away the mess on the floor.  
“Maybe you shouldn’t go to Arlington’s with me, Snow,” Baz said, his eyes cast downward, refusing to look at mine. “It would be safer if you didn’t.”  
“Screw that,” I jerk out of the chair. “We’ll just deal with it, head on, I’m not hiding,” I jut my chin out and stand my ground. “I’m innocent.”  
“I think we should talk to my dad,” Penelope stared at the scones. “He understood most of what happened, and he won’t turn Simon in to the Old Families.”  
I look at Baz. He sighs and ruffles his silk black hair with his hand. “Okay, Bunce.”  
I grab my coat. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Baz tilts his head.  
“We’re leaving for Penny’s house,” I say, tossing him his black jacket. “Now.”


	6. A Disturbing Visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter seven will be posted tomorrow morning instead of tomorrow night due to me not being home tomorrow night.  
> Chapter eight will be posted Sunday night.  
> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates

6  
Baz  
Snow is off his fucking rocker. Here he is, blue eyes dancing with fire, crossing his arms like everything is so simple and we can fix it with a phone call or a spell. Doesn’t he understand he’s in danger now? A target? I didn’t think about it, with the rush of everything, but now I can practically see the bull’s eye on his chest. They’re going to rip him apart, and I’m not going to stand around and let it happen.   
I toss my jacket back at him. “No. I won’t let you put yourself out there like bait.”  
He tosses it back at me. “I’m going.”  
I throw the coat back at him. “No, you’re not.”  
He keeps the jacket. “With or without you, Baz. Don’t make me do this myself.”  
“Give me that,” I snarl, snatching the coat from his hands, pushing past him and ripping the door open. Snow’s eyes nearly pop out of his head, and Penny’s looking at me like I sprouted wings. (Which shouldn’t be that surprising, considering Snow’s already done that.) “Are we going to wait the fuck around or are we going to leave?”  
Penelope walks out the door without looking at me, but Snow goes on the tips of his toes to meet my mouth with his. He presses his lips to mine and I close my eyes. “Together, okay? I don’t want to do this with you.”   
I nod, winding my arm around his waist. “Together, or not at all.” And that’s how I end up accompanying Snow on his happy go lucky little mission to save himself and figure out what the fuck is happening. We take my new car, a black BMW, and I drive. He looks out the window nervously every once in a while and I’m probably going to crash the car from staring at him instead of the road.   
“It’s up here,” Bunce points to a long, winding road. A small house stands in the distance, a chimney puffing out multicolored smoke. It looks like something out of a fucking fairytale.   
I slam the door, and turn to both of them. “I still don’t like this,” I warn them, my eyes hard.  
Snow says nothing and walks inside. I follow.   
“Penelope! What a wonderful surprise,” says a pretty looking woman with dark hair as she opens the door. She falters slightly at the sight of Snow. “Simon… come in, come in.” Simon gives her a bright smile and bumps into the banister when he walks in. Mrs. Bunce inhales sharply, but says nothing else except for, “Watch the banister, dear.”  
“Mom, this is Baz,” Bunce’s mother’s eyes flash. They exchange hushed whispers until Penny cuts her off, looking irritated.  
“All we came to do is ask Dad some questions,” she explains, pulling Snow and I towards what is obviously her father’s office.   
A small amount of light filters in from a window. A skinny man sits at a messy desk, typing feverishly at a laptop, the blue light showing the dead expression on his face. Merlin, Bunce’s father looks deader than I do, and I’m a vampire for snake’s sake.  
“Dad, we need to-” she begins, but he dismisses her with a flick of his hand.  
“Honey, I’m working-” he sighs. It wouldn’t kill him to take a break. It looks like he’s been living in here for months.  
“It’s about the Humdrum,” her voice is hard.   
Immediately he stiffens, his fingers tensing over his keyboard. “Why, of course, sit.” I sit, and so does Snow, right at my side, but Bunce remains standing.   
“There haven’t been any new holes, have there?” She bit nervously at the skin near her thumbnail.  
“Of course not, why would there be?” Bunce’s father drops what he’s doing and looks at her curiously like she just became interesting. This look probably said a lot about their relationship.  
“Simon has magic again.”  
All the air has been sucked out of the room. I think her father’s going to have a heart attack, he looks so shocked. He grabs Snow by the shoulders and shakes him until his curls bounce. “Is it true, Simon, can you do the things they say you can-”  
I push him off, fangs popping. Snow grabs my wrist but I shake him off. “Don’t fucking touch Snow,” I growl around my fangs.  
But he’s looking at Snow like he’s the cure for cancer and cancer itself at the same time. He gives him the same curious head tilt and ignores my fangs completely, and the fact that I obviously wouldn’t think twice about ripping his head off. (Well I might think twice, he is Bunce’s father after all…but still).   
He rips open his sleeve. “I hear,” he breathes. “You can give people magic.”  
Snow shakes his head, furious tears welling in his eyes. I’m still standing in front of him.   
“That isn’t what we’re here to discuss,” Penelope pushes him back into the chair, but his eyes never leave Snow. “We want to know why it came back, but different.”  
Finally, he looks away from Snow and I see a shred of sanity behind his glasses. “Different? Different how?”  
“Less,” Snow says quietly. “Not like before. I’m like Penny now, or Baz. My power is equal to theirs.”  
“Interesting,” Bunce’s father furrows his brows. “Very, very interesting indeed.”  
“Are you going to sit there acting like a bloody loon, or are you going to tell us what’s so fucking interesting,” I spit out. Trust me to be civil.  
“It seems that Snow did not give all of his power after all, Mr. Pitch,” he taps his fingers manically together. My eyebrows fly up at the sound of my name, but he ignores me, of course. “Since he is still a mage, what we considered to be unimaginable power is gone, instead replaced with the original power, the kind bestowed to a mage at birth. The power Simon has now, is in theory, his birth right power, what he inherited from his parents.”  
“So whatever was special about my magic is gone?” Snow stands up. “I have just this left?”  
“Yes it seems so,” Bunce’s father looks disinterested once again once he puzzled together that Snow was no longer the shit prophecies are made of. “At any rate, the holes should keep shrinking, and all magic will return to the dead spots,” he turned back to his laptop and chewed on the end of his pencil. “Lovely to see you again, Penelope dear, do stop by more, and don’t be a stranger, Simon,” he trailed off, his voice distant.   
I leave the room and the house, without a word to Bunce’s parents. I snap my seatbelt on tightly and Penelope rushes in, Snow on her heels. “Great parents you have there, Bunce.”  
“Don’t” she says, her voice thick. “Just drive.”  
And I do.


	7. Gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates

7  
Simon  
When we got back to the flat, none of us dared to say a single word. That is, until a woman with cropped dark hair and a white streak came running into our apartment. I half expected her to shout, “The British are coming!” But we are the British, and its 2016, so she didn’t.  
“Basilton,” she gasped instead, kneeling over trying to catch her breath. Baz didn’t focus on this random woman and the fact that she had somehow had gotten into our flat, but narrowed his eyes at his full middle name.   
“Fiona, you look like hell,” he said curtly, not showing any concern in the slightest. He had called her by name, so not a random woman?  
Penelope cleared her throat. “I think I speak for Simon and I both when I say, what is going on here?” she exasperated, looking at me for an answer. I shrug. Fiona, Fiona why did that sound so familiar…  
“Mordelia is gone,” she hissed, standing up. “She’s disappeared.”   
Baz goes white as a sheet (maybe paler than that…he’s already so white already...). Oh, that’s right! Fiona is Baz’s aunt. They share a flat together not too far from ours. Shit, how could I have forgotten?  
“What do you mean, disappeared?” He says it like he’s never heard of the word before.   
“She was kidnapped, look,” she passes him a note. It’s obviously a copy of a copy of a copy, the ink is blurred so badly. It reads:  
I will take one by one until I have what I need.  
“What the hell,” he shakes the paper, “is this?”  
“Their twisted ass version of a ransom note,” Fiona stops to make a face at me. “This is the bloke you’re shacking up with? The Chosen One?”  
I made a face back at her. Baz rolls his eyes and scoffs. “Come off it, Fiona, you sound like Father.” She certainly looked nothing like Baz’s father. She looked like a Normal punk rocker, she had an excessive amount of black and zippers on her clothing, I think her shirt was shredded intentionally…  
She makes a point to look disgusted by this statement and gives me one last look of disapproval before she moves towards the door. “Well, this has been lovely, nephew, but I think I’ll just see you at the flat later.”  
Baz nods and Penelope, who had been silently fuming behind me, blurted out, “That’s it? You’re just going to leave after dropping off this huge information?”  
Fiona smiles at her explosion amusedly. She pretends to think it over before she says, “Yeah, sorry, grape head, but I’m out of here.”  
“No, I say, my voice firm. “You’re not just going to jet off and not tell us what’s going on. I’ve been out of the loop my whole life, and I’m not going to be another puppet in a stupid marionette show. I’m done with games,” I’m shocked at how furious I sound, but I keep going. “I want details, I want suspects-”  
“Look, kid,” she glances at me tiredly, but at least she doesn’t look at me like a dog that’s just thrown up on her shoes. “I’ll tell you what I know, alright? But it isn’t much.”  
I nod stiffly.  
“Mordelia was here last night. When Baz’s father woke up,” she casted a peculiar look at Baz, “she was gone. And this note was on her pillow.”  
“And the suspect list?” Baz asked coldly.  
Fiona averted her eyes, and began to study her boots. “I didn’t intend …” she trailed off. Struck by how out of character this behavior seemed to be, I tried to meet Baz’s eyes but he stared at her, refusing to look at me.   
“Didn’t intend to what?” Penny stepped closer.  
“I didn’t intend to tell you this way, Baz, but… they think it was your dad. They haven’t got any more suspects, but it’ll blow over, they’ll find her and he’ll be proven innocent…”  
For a split second, emotion clouded Baz’s face and I watched his walls crumble, but as soon as the look was there, the composure was back, looking as if he just as concerned as he would if he had eaten an orange instead of an apple.  
“It’ll be fine, Fiona,” he nodded, turning on his heel. “I’ll take care of it.”  
And she left, slamming the door hard behind her without another word.  
“Let me see this note again,” I sigh, ignoring Penelope’s aggravated mutters about how her hair was plum not grape, and how ‘she was one to talk about hair.’   
The note reads the same message over and over no matter how many times I read it. What did they need? I wondered.   
“That grammar is flawed,” Penelope wrinkled her nose. “It should say, ‘I will take them one by one until I have what I need.”  
“But why leave this,” Baz threw the note, and it floated gracefully to the ground. “If you’re not even going to say what you need?”  
I reached to comfort him but he shrank from my touch and said, “I should probably get back to the flat. Check on Fiona.”  
“Eat something before you go,” I held out a scone but he shook his head.  
“I’m fine, Snow. Honestly,” he walked out the front door, this time, not turning back.  
And then it was just Penny and me, still holding out a scone to the empty air.


	8. Bite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates

8  
Baz  
I don’t go to my flat. I don’t go to see Fiona. Instead, as soon as the door slams shut I quicken my pace until I’m running, my feet slapping the concrete beneath them. This isn’t real, this isn’t real, this isn’t real, I chant in my head until I feel like a stupid child. It was real, all of it, if anything, it was the most real thing that had happened since last year. This – being with Snow, going to Arlington’s, being friends with Penelope, living with Fiona – was a dream, and now I’m stirring in my sleep. This is me waking up. This is my reality, kidnappings and blood and murder and scandal. This is the life set out for a person with a fucking posh name like Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch.   
I would give it all away, I think to myself hopelessly. I would give it all away if it meant Snow would be okay. A drop of rain slid down my face but I blink it away. Fuck this. I want to scream as many curse words as I can, to say who needs the world, but he’s in the world, and I need him more than anything. Ahead of me, the forest grows on the horizon. A sharp, piercing pain hits my stomach and I double over. My hands feel like they’re full of needles, everything’s swirling around me, the blue sky and green trees, like a kaleidoscope. I try to remember the last time I fed, but all I can think of is the encompassing hunger that’s taken a hold of me. I’ve been ignoring the icy pangs of hunger that had been creeping up on me for the last few days. I remember a conversation with Snow last year.  
“How often do you need to feed?” He had asked.  
“Once every night to feel full. Once every few days to stay sane,” I had responded.  
How long had it been? Ages. Too long. And this was the price to pay. Fiona’s message had struck a match inside me and now I was burning. I want to bite.   
As soon as the pain came, it was gone. I took a deep breath, and even I, in this state, noticed that when I rose I felt less human. More animal. More vampire. The thing about being undead, is that you don’t feel undead. If anything, you feel more alive. My vision’s spiked and my gate is cat like as I stride to the forest. I’m moving fast, but it feels like I’m walking or gliding. Soon the trees were soaring above me as I ran faster and faster. I can see each one in detail as I run past, even though they should look like bleeding water color. I stop and inhale deeply even though I don’t need to. A low snarl begins in my throat as I rotate in a circle, watching.   
Then I see it, a slight rustle to the left of me. There, with ears perked, is a doe. A grin widens on my face as I feel my fangs pop. I run my tongue over them as its tail flicks nervously back and forth. The doe begins to trot quickly away and I laugh. I’m not Baz. I’m not human or vampire. I let out a frustrated whine.  
The doe takes off, and I follow, stalking from behind. Its head swivels, but I duck behind a tree. Then I pounce. I   
Tear  
Rip  
Bite  
Drink.  
When I finish, I feel human again. Great snakes, I haven’t let myself go that fucking nuts since fifth year. Blood drips down my mouth and fangs and onto my front. I look like I just took a bath in blood. Great. I clean it up with, “Clean as a whistle!” but I still feel gross and the itching of caked blood underneath my fingernails doesn’t go away.   
The walk out of the forest is a short one. Once I finally reached the border where outside became the Great Outdoors, I can’t remember the walk out. One second I was by the doe, and the next, out of the woods.   
I walk back to my flat through the downpour. Now that I’m me and not some primal monster, an ache settles in my stomach like it plans to stay there. I’ll take one by one until I have what I need. The note flashes in my mind and I nearly visibly cringe, but the oblivious Normals don’t seem to notice anything. Unsurprising.   
I reach in my pocket for my key, but the door swings open before I get it.  
“You should have stayed with him,” she sighs, ruffling her hair. “You shouldn’t have come.”  
I step inside around her and into the kitchen. It’s barely lit, and the sink is full of dirty dishes. I clean them away as I speak. “You need me. And I live here.”  
She made a pshaw sound, which I suspect is the most friendly she’s been sounded in a while, judging by the state of the kitchen. With me being at Arlington’s and with Snow the other half of the time, I haven’t been here in weeks. No wonder the place looks like shit.  
“Please, Basil, you hardly visit much less live here,” she snorts, sitting on top of the counter instead of helping. Whatever.   
I scrub at the dirty dishes, focusing my words on them instead of her. “You’re going to be seeing more of me from now on,” I promise her.  
“And why am I graced with your royal presence?” I can feel her eyes on my back.  
“Because I’m done,” I say simply.  
“With what?”  
“Everything.”  
“What qualifies as everything? And what about Snow?” She inquired. I sigh and put away the dishes and sit on the counter across from her, crossing my legs beneath me. I ignore her second question.   
“They crossed a line when they took Mordelia,” I say quietly, though my voice is as sharp as knife. “I’m tired of antagonists and villains and war. I don’t care about any of that anymore. This is the last time.”  
“The last time,” she nods.  
“The last time,” I confirm.


	9. Chapter 9

9  
Simon  
I haven’t seen Baz in days. He hasn’t answered my calls or texts. I even went to his flat to check on him and no one answered. I stare at my phone, the screen taunting me. I press dial on Baz’s number. One ring. Two. Three. And then,  
“This is Baz,” I hear his voice. A sigh of relief escapes me.  
“Baz, I-“  
“You know what to do,” his voice interrupts me. Fucking voicemail. Closing my eyes, I hang up.  
“This thing with his stepmother hit him really hard, Simon. It might be awhile,” Penny says gently, not surprised that I couldn’t get in contact with him.  
“I want to go to Arlington’s to see him,” I pour my half eaten cereal down the kitchen sink. “What if something’s happened?”  
“He’s a vampire and a mage, he’s practically invincible,” Penny shoveled more soggy cereal into her mouth. “I think he just wants time to sort out himself.”  
I shake my head. “That’s what I’m afraid of. He’s so…destructive. He’s going to do something dangerous intentionally.” My gaze is on my phone, as if it will light up after five days of radio silence, with him saying it snowed in Arlington and phone lines are down (it hasn’t; I already checked) or that his phone broke or he lost it…  
But there’s nothing. Shocker.   
“He’s gotten better. He’ll be okay, he just needs time,” Penny sighed, putting away her bowl.   
“I’m going to Arlington’s.”  
“No, you aren’t. It’s about to snow.”  
“I’m going.”  
“Simon.”  
“You can’t stop me.”  
“It’s dangerous.”  
“He needs me.” As I said this, Penny worked her mouth but no sound came out. She had no argument. She knew I was right.   
A ring filled the awkward silence. I dive for mine phone like it's a lifeline, but it’s Penny’s. Begrudgingly she answered.   
“Micah, this isn’t really a good time-”  
I was out the door before she finished her sentence, keys in hand. Penny was right about it snowing. All day it had been raining, but now temperature had dropped to freezing. Goosebumps rise on my arms as I walk into the cold. Fat snowflakes fell into my hair, on my blue scarf (Baz picked it out. He said it matched my eyes. He likes to pull on it to kiss me), my eyelashes, my coat. I slam the door shut as I get in.   
Penny runs out of our flat, her arms wind milling. “SIMON SNOW YOU ARE NOT LEAVING. WE’LL FIGURE THIS OUT, COME BACK INSIDE.” She jiggled the car handle but I locked it from the inside without looking at her. I love Penny, I do, but the longer I was here the longer Baz could be in danger. Penny would be fine.   
I pulled out of the driveway, and Penny let go of the handle. “GET INSIDE, PLEASE SIMON,” she begged.  
I mouthed a genuine ‘sorry,’ from the window. This was the only way. I was going to get Baz and drag him back here and kiss him and everything would be fine. As long as we were all together.  
Which is slightly hypocritical to think of as I drive away from Penny onto the freeway. For a while I sit and drive, my eyes boring holes into the road. It takes me ten minutes before I realize I have no idea how to get to Arlington’s. It had to be somewhat close, Baz lived with Fiona’s and still managed to go to school there.   
I type the name into the GPS, my fingers crossed (on top of the steering wheel, of course). If Arlington’s didn’t exist to Normals, nothing would pop up. But if it was still there in their world when they looked at it, the GPS would show it. Otherwise, I was utterly screwed and I had pulled all of this with Penny just to get lost.  
But an address popped up. I let out a whoop of joy and hit the roof the car with my hand in the process.   
It was…four hours away? What the hell. Baz must use, “No place like home,” to get home, rather than drive. I sucked on the inside of my cheek and fastened my eyes on the road as the GPS said in a sickly sweet voice, “Drive straight for twenty five miles,” the words coming out as choppy as waves in a storm.   
I kept driving. Snow started to stick to the windshield, so I turned on the wipers. Cars in front of me started to disappear and then reappear in a white haze, the dim yellow headlights the only warning before you were nearly nose to fender with them. I kept driving, as I lost sight of the cars around me in the storm. I kept driving, as the road turned white and icy and I watched a truck spin and lose control two lanes to my left. I kept driving, squinting at the road, hoping Baz was safer than I was right now.  
I kept driving.  
Arlington’s here I come.


	10. The Chase

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates

Baz  
10  
Snow called me again. My phone lights up with a picture of us kissing, both of our faces covered in flour. I let it go to voicemail. That’s about the millionth time he’s called me in three days. This time, instead of waiting for it to ring again, I turn it off and focus on the task at hand.  
In front of me, the chalkboard from the Pitch Estate stared back into me. I had taken it when I moved out, wanting to remember last Christmas when Snow, Bunce, and that dreadful Wellbelove- well, I guess she wasn’t that dreadful, she did help, but I’ve hated her for ages due to her relationship with Snow- spent the day trying to solve the mystery of the death of my mother and get rid of the Humdrum. I shudder slightly at the memory of him sucking the magic from the Manor, when I discovered he was Snow, when he gave me his nothingness…   
My eyes flick back to the board. What’s that saying; ‘If you stare into the abyss long enough, it stares back?’ That’s what this chalkboard was doing. Looking at the smeared black filled with my cramped cursive was like looking into oblivion. The same bullet points were facing me, begging to be added to.  
• What do they need?  
• Why Mordelia?  
• Who is next?  
But I haven’t the slightest idea on any of them, and Fiona wasn’t exactly bursting with ideas, either. She sat on a desk, eating crisps, a dead look on her face. Thanks for the fucking help, Fiona.  
I let my mind drift back to Snow. Two days ago he came to the flat. Fiona was a hairsbreadth from answering when I tackled her to the ground.  
“What the fuck, Basil,” she tried to get up, but I pushed her back down.  
“Don’t let him in,” I hissed.  
“Why on earth not? He’s called you fifty times at least- don’t try to deny it- what, are you two fighting?” She propped herself on her elbow, now content to not answer the door.  
I rolled my eyes. “No, of course not. It’s just… I want to solve this. And I don’t want Snow involved. He’s going to want to help,” I explained, getting up.   
“And you don’t want him to get hurt again,” she nodded, standing up next to me.  
“Exactly.”  
She nodded. “You’re a rather good bloke, you know that, Basilton?”  
“Shove off,” I grumbled half-heartedly. 

 

I said I was done, and I had meant it. I wasn’t going to risk putting Snow in danger, not this time. Not ever. For too long I had been what he was against, and now I was going to solve our problems in a matter of days without him leaving the comfort of his own flat.   
The doorbell rang.  
“Don’t get it,” I instructed her.   
It rang again.  
“Leave it,” I waved off a hand. “Snow needs to stay out of it this time.”  
It rang again. And again. And again. And again.   
“He’ll leave,” I said, going back to the chalkboard.  
He did not. For a obnoxious, agonizing few minutes (I wanted to run and fling open the door and scream at him to go away and then kiss him) the doorbell continued to ring. Then, abruptly, it stopped. The sound of the door hitting the floor reverberates through the floor. I jump off the chair and walk into the foyer, eyes blazing.  
“What the actual fuck, Snow-” I shout, but it isn’t Simon Snow standing in my living room looking like a loon. Instead, Bunce is standing there, her feet planted into the ground like she intends to stay, her purple hair whipping around her as the wind forces its way through the space where the door used to be, covered completely in melting snow.   
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” she forced out, sounding angrier than I’ve ever heard. Which is saying something. “But now, you need to help me get Simon back.”  
“Get him back?” I say wildly. “Back from where? I’m gone for less than a week and he’s just gone and disappeared or been kidnapped?”  
“Oh, it’s nothing like that,” she said coolly, putting the door back in place. “He went to Arlington’s.”  
“Why on earth would he do that,” I fling a hand towards her. “It’s obviously snowing a shit storm out there.”  
“To see you,” she crossed her arms, and raised her eyebrows. “The fact that you thought I was Simon and didn’t answer proves that you’re ignoring him-”  
“Not now, Bunce. He’s going to,” I swallowed, raking back my hair. “Merlin, he’s going to die out there.” It takes me half a second to make a decision. “I’m going after him.” I can’t believe Snow would do this. Oh wait, I can. This plan with no actual plan, which is additionally dangerous and crazy, screams Snow. I should have seen this coming.  
“Baz, no, this isn’t what I came here to do,” she tugged on my arm but I pulled it out of her grip and start grabbing bottles of water and warm clothes.   
“Doesn’t matter. It’s my fault he’s out there. If he-” my breath hitched. “It’ll be my fault.”  
“He’s endured worse,” Penny attempts to assure me, but it doesn’t matter. Simon Snow is going to die and it will be my fault.   
“The longer I’m here the longer he’s in danger,” I remind her. “I’ll see you, Fiona,” I call out to the back of the house.  
Fiona stumbles out of the room, her fingers still covered in dust from crisps. “For snake’s sake, Basil, don’t go out there-”  
“I have to go save Snow,” I push open the door. “I’m coming back with him, or not at all.”  
And I meant it.


	11. The Official Worst Plan Ever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates

Simon  
11  
This is, officially, the worst plan I have ever had. I’ve done loads of stupid things that have almost killed me. I’ve faced the Humdrum with nothing but a blank mind and panic thrumming in my veins, for example. As I sit in this death machine that will probably stop working any minute that will almost definitely be the end of me (and that’s just if a car doesn’t crash into me or I don’t accidentally spin off the road), I have never felt more like I was about to die. Even in fifth year, when I thought Baz was going to kill me in my sleep, death now feels more immediate in this icebox of a car. Okay, maybe I was surer when I gave all my magic to the Humdrum or when the Mage almost killed me, or the chimera, but still, I’m pretty sure this is it. I can see the headline now; Simon Snow dies in snow. Oh, the irony of this will kill me if this storm doesn’t.   
Also, officially, I have zero sight. It’s like the windshield is covered in paper. Everything I see is white. It’s impossible to distinguish anything else. I feel like I’m at some dangerous weird version of the South Pole, and Santa Clause is going to pop up (or is that the North Pole? I get them mixed up).   
It doesn’t help that I’m the clumsiest person in the world. Nothing I own is glass, because I’ll break it. It took me six times to get my license because I kept running into the orange cones and started to apologize to the person grading me rather than looking at the road. This scenario was the kind that made me freak out whenever I sat at a wheel. I’m only one person, and this car is a huge machine that can make life threatening accidents. Plus, the seat and the seatbelt is really awkward with my wings and tail. I have to keep moving them around and I’ve lost feeling in my left wing.   
I look at the window instead of the windshield for half a second but the view is no better. Even the rearview mirror is encrusted in ice. An orange light flashes and I groan. The check engine light, aka, ‘The you’re Really Screwed This Time’ Warning.   
I pull over and park. I fumble for the jacket next to me in the passenger seat (where Baz should be) and get out of the car to pop the hood. This is my second mistake (the first being this trip). I know as much about cars as I know about math. Zilch. The engine looks like it always does. Black and covered in weird tubes and mechanisms that I don’t understand the purpose of. I sigh and slam the hood shut, causing snow to pop up into the air from its surface and then rain down on me. Only I could do that.  
I sit in the car, too nervous to drive any farther but too antsy about Baz to sit there doing nothing. I turn back on my phone. Fifteen missed calls from Penny- and thirty from Baz? What? I listen to the voicemail.  
“Simon, it’s me,” he says like he could be someone else. “I’m not at Arlington’s. I was at my flat, but I’m coming to get you. Tell me where you are and I’ll drive us back.”  
I click the next one.  
“Snow, you’re scaring the shit out of me. I’ve been on the road for thirty minutes and everything looks like fucking Antarctica, it’s like winter threw up everywhere. Answer me. This is dangerous. You don’t have to do this.”  
I click skip down to the last one.  
“I swear to all that is holy, if you don’t pick up the next time I call-” Baz’s voice raged, but the phone ringing cut him off.   
It was Baz. For a split second I think about not answering and giving him a taste of his own medicine, but I’m so screwed out here by myself and I miss him so much that I answer.  
“Hello?” I say hesitantly, like I’ve never answered a phone before.  
“Where are you,” Baz says worriedly. “I can’t believe you’re out in this-”  
“I can’t believe you’re out in this.”  
“I had to get you.”  
“I had to get you.”  
He sighs, and I can imagine him combing his fingers through his hair, showing off his dramatic widow’s peak. “I’m sorry, Snow.”  
My lip quivers slightly and I try my best to sound normal when I answer. “Me too.”  
“Where are you,” he asks again.  
I check the GPS. “Somewhere off of 264.”  
“I’m about half an hour away from there, but I’m going to speed there alright?” I can almost hear him slamming the pedal to the floor.   
“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. You’re going to slide on the ice,” I warn him. He never thinks about his own safety.  
“I’ll be fine.”  
“Baz?” I whisper, my voice low and soft.  
“Yeah?”  
“Will you stay on the phone with me until you get here?”  
“Try stopping me.”  
I’ve missed this. I’ve missed Baz. Something that was empty before has been filled. For the first time in a while, I feel whole. Freezing my butt off in this car, but whole.


	12. The Limit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Creds to Troye Sivan for Bite lyrics  
> That's my main Snowbaz song and I had to include it   
> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow

Baz  
12  
I stay on the phone with Snow until I finally reach his car. I almost drove by it, it’s so coated in snow, a giant mound in an infinite white blanket. I pull over, parking in front of him. Snow barrels his way out of the car and then he’s in my arms. I press my nose into his curls and inhale. He was here, he was alive, he was mine. His lips brush my neck and his hands hold my waist tightly. He holds me like this in the middle of this storm like he plans to never let me go.  
“We’ll come back for your car,” I say, clearing my throat so I don’t sound as emotional as I am on the inside. Snow is safe. Snow is safe. Snow is safe.  
He nods and gives me a quick, cold kiss on the cheek before we get in the car and I begin to drive back.   
“You’re my knight in shining armor,” his mouth pulls into a bright smile.  
“I fetched you from a snow storm, I didn’t slay a dragon,” I give him a small laugh. Thoughts buzz like flies in my head. How am I going to keep him away now? I needed more time. Keeping myself off Snow was like waning myself off drugs, and now here he was and I was full of him. It gets easier to stay away after it’s been a while since I’ve last seen him. That’s what I did during the summers. I would appear less and less in our room as it got warmer outside, until I stopped showing up at all. And then school ended, and I let myself have fall and winter, and then began waning again.  
I shouldn’t need to do this now. I give him a sideways glance- which is risky, and fucking stupid, because we could die- at him looking at me with his wide blue eyes, his tawny colored hand tapping on the dash. I could have as much as him as I want. And I do, more than anything, I want to stay with Snow and lock ourselves in a room and let the world figure itself out. I know I can’t do that, as I focus back on the road and think of Mordelia. I could save her and keep Snow saved.   
“Same difference,” he sounds like usually does before he kisses me.   
“Hush, Snow, I need to focus on the road,” I try to make my voice sound firm and cruel. How did I do it all those years? If Snow got mad at me, and he ignored me for a while, then I could figure out what’s going on and fix and he’d be fine.  
“Kay,” he says, fixing his gaze from my face to his hands. He starts twiddling his thumbs for a few minutes. Eventually, he begins to hum. I try to look annoyed. He starts to sing, a soft, sweet melody barely loud enough to be heard. Of course he sounds like a fucking angel, why can’t he suck like everyone on those blasted television programs?  
I can’t force myself to be angry at the sound. It would be like kicking a puppy. Or kicking Snow. He sings the whole way home, not stopping once between songs, singing my favorites and his, and then he sings the song. Our song.  
It came on the radio one day while we were going out shopping in the BMW. When he first heard it, his eyes lit up. In less than a minute, he had googled the lyrics and even had me singing along. We’ve danced to it in the kitchen at three am. We’ve whispered the lyrics while we’re falling asleep next to each other in bed.  
“Kiss me on the mouth and set me free,” He sings softly, pulling himself closer to me to give me a lingering kiss on the corner of my mouth. It quirks up and turns into a grin and he kisses that too before being pulled back into his seat by the seatbelt, but he doesn’t stop. “Sing me like a choir. I can be the subject of your dreams. You’re sickening desire. Don’t you want to see a man up close?” He blushes at this line and I bite my lip he’s so flushed and red.  
“A phoenix in the fire,” I join in, and he ignores my obviously disgusting voice, but looks delighted.  
“So kiss me on the mouth and set me free, but please don’t bite,” We finish the first verse as I pull in front of the flat and dive on top of him, pressing my mouth hard against his.  
I wind my fingers in his curls and he tangles his fingers in my hair. His lips are soft and warm and the inside of his mouth tastes like melted butter. Everything’s hot and thrumming and I can feel him in my veins as I undo the seatbelt-  
“Ahem,” a feminine voice coughs.  
I untangle myself from Snow to see an embarrassed Bunce.   
Snow laughs at her expression and pulls my jaw close to his mouth for one last kiss before he gets out of the car. “You always have remarkable timing.”  
“I can think of a lot of adjectives for this, but ‘remarkable’ is not one of them,” she rolled her eyes and walked inside.   
“Isn’t this the part where you hug me and say ‘thank god you’re alive’?” He calls inside after her as I get out of the car.   
She gives him a warm smile from the doorway. “Thank god you’re alive.”  
I wrap my arm around his waist as we follow her inside. “She needs to learn to knock.”  
“ON A CAR?” She yells as we walk in. “Your windows are tinted but they aren’t that tinted, Baz. Honestly, you two have got to have some limits.”


	13. Say Anything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates  
> Yes, I am aware of how sad this chapter is.  
> Yes, I know, chapter fourteen will explain.  
> Carry On.

Simon  
13  
Baz pulls me towards the fire, his hands tugging on my jacket. “Get away from there,” I hiss, grabbing him by the shoulders.  
“Shut up, Snow, you’re cold as fuck-” He began, rubbing his cool, porcelain hands over mine, trying to generate heat.   
“I’m fine, okay?” I put my finger underneath his chin and make him meet my gaze. “We’re okay.”  
“We’re okay,” he echoed, pulling me into him. “We’re okay.”  
“I’m…uh- I’m going to make us some tea,” Penny stuttered, red rising up her face.  
As I slowly gain feeling back in the tips of my toes and fingers, a realization dawned on me. I stiffened in Baz’s arms and he pulled back, sensing my unease.  
“Why have you been ignoring me?” I asked, tilting my head curiously. “I’ve called you fifty times, stopped by your flat, and you made me think you weren’t home. Why does it take me doing something rash to get your attention?” My chin quivers, and tears well in my eyes. Fuck, do not cry, do not cry, be angry, not sad, but eventually one escapes and falls down my cheek silently.  
Baz bit his lip uncertainly and tapped his finger on his thigh. When he didn’t respond, I stepped towards him. “I know this has got to be hard on you – with Mordelia, not just me,” I trailed off, willing him to say something, say anything, anything at all.  
But his gaze remained vacant and unfocused. “Baz,” I touched his arm. He jumped like I had shocked him and looked at me… oddly. A strange gleam was in his eyes, his lip curled slightly. I recognize the expression in an instant. This was the face he made when we first met. This was how he looked at me for all of our Watford years. Hatred.   
“Simon,” he whispered softly and my heart melted. We would be fine. Everything is okay. We’re okay.   
But then he continued.  
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” he looked me in the eye, finally. But they were cold and unyielding. There was no warmth in them. I felt colder than I did in the car. The temperature seemed to drop, the only heat coming from the fire.  
“What isn’t a good idea?” I asked stupidly, my eyes searching for any of the Baz that I had gotten to know over the last year. It was as if he had gone back to fifth year, the same loathing and sneer.   
“Us. Obviously, Snow,” he laughed until it turned into a watery hiccup.   
My stomach dropped to my toes. I’m going to throw up, I think. I’m going to vomit all over Baz. “You’re kidding me,” I rubbed my face with my hands. “Baz- please- you’ve got to be kidding,” my voice broke. I want to drop like a rock to the floor. My hands are shaking. I want t melt into a puddle and disappear. I would give all of my magic away again if it meant this didn’t happen. I need him.   
“I’m serious,” he raised his head up, staring at the ceiling. His voice was monotone. Robotic. Like all the feeling had left him. He was a shell.   
“Why?” I heard myself ask, but I was a million miles away. I was no longer Simon Snow. I wasn’t anybody. I was above the scene, no longer in my body, no longer able to move. I can’t breathe. And yet, here I am, standing and breathing and blinking as if the world was not ending.   
“I can’t do this,” he picked up his jacket from where he had dropped it when we first came in, laughing and carrying on like everything was hunky fucking dory. I latched on to it, standing between him and the door. What happened in that sixty seconds in between? What suddenly changed? Did he plan this? Was he thinking ‘I’ll save Snow, but then I’m done’?   
“Yes, yes you can. God, Baz, you can.” Maybe I can snap him out of it. He doesn’t move as I press my lips to his. I close my eyes and break it off and he makes a show of wiping his mouth on his sleeve.   
“No,” he says shortly. “I can’t go around saving you every two fucking minutes,” he said coldly. “I’m not your hero. I’m not your anything.”  
I am numb. My ears are ringing. I have no control over myself, over anything really. I think of the kisses, the hugs, the baking, and the sleeping together, the holding hands, the jokes and the romantic dates. Ice skating. It stings to remember.   
“But I love you.”  
The words tumbled from my mouth.   
It’s the first time.   
The only time.  
And from the way he’s looking at me,  
The last.   
“The feeling’s not mutual,” he hissed and opened the door. I let him and he slammed it shut. I sank to my knees and howled. Penny came running, breathless. “What’s happened.”  
“Everything.”


	14. A Long Drive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late, but I worked on Like Magic all yesterday and it slipped my mind.  
> Note: This story only has about five or six chapters left. All loose ends will be tied.  
> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates  
> Carry on.

14  
Baz  
I run through the snow. Suddenly I’m in the car, though I don’t remember getting in. It occurs to me that I shouldn’t be driving in this state, whatever this state is. I start the car anyways and drive. I drive past Simon’s flat, past my flat, past civilization. It stops snowing eventually. I drive until there’s almost no snow on the ground. I don’t know where I am. I don’t care.  
Eventually, I pull into a diner’s parking lot.  
I beat the steering wheel until my hands are bloody and I can’t think of any more curse words to say.  
I had to do this, I tell myself. For Snow. This was the only way I could keep him safe, I reasoned. The only way. If keeping him alive meant making him hate me, then I owe it to him to do this. I couldn’t tell im why I’ve been ignoring him especially when he wanted to help. He would get himself killed or kidnapped in five minutes. Maybe four. Or three.  
God, he’s never going to speak to me again. That was our last kiss, and I didn’t even kiss him back. I almost cracked right then and there when he kissed me, confessing I was trying to figure out who took Mother and fix everything. Now I had no Mother, no answers, and no Snow. I am so screwed. I don’t even know where I am or how long I drove.  
I glance out the window at the diner. It’s old and crusty looking, and two of the bulbs on the sign have gone out so it reads:  
S LLY’S DI ER  
I suck the blood off my knuckles and consider the implications of going inside. I haven’t eaten in two days, but I feel like if I ate now, I would throw it all up. However, if I don’t eat, there isn’t another restaurant or store for miles around. I sigh and get out of the car. It’s warmed up since I’ve last been out, so much so I wonder if I’m anywhere near home. Where was that now, anyways?  
A bell rings as I open the door and a perky bleach blonde is smiling at me like I’m a puppy. I have never been less in the mood.  
I slide into the booth as she whips out a small notebook. “What d’you want, hon?” She snapped her bubblegum. She has red lipstick on her teeth.  
“Cereal,” I say flatly.  
“You sure, cause we have-” She began uncertainly.  
“Cereal,” I repeat.  
“Okay, well if you’re sure, hon,” she left, giving me a sad look first. Even the trashy waitress could tell I’m pitiful. Fuck. At least she didn’t say anything about my hands. The throbbing pain had distracted me from the absence of Snow, but as it faded a new wave of loss hit me, just as hard as the first. When she came back with the cereal, I only could eat half of it before my stomach felt like shit. I downed two glasses of water and left a tip andwalked out back to the car.  
I drummed my fingers on the wheel. Where do I go? Home? Where is that? Snow was home. I spent more time there than I did with Fiona’s. And it was so close to Snow’s flat that it was painful, why, why did it have to be so close. Why couldn’t we live in fucking Amsterdam instead? I check my phone. No calls from Snow. Fan-fucking-tastic. Ten calls from Bunce and ten messages, no doubt saying, ‘what the fuck were you thinking you idiot’. Ten from Fiona. I block Bunce and ring up Fiona and put her on speaker.  
“Get home,” she says.  
“Where’s that,” I reply, dead.  
“Don’t pull that shit with me. Get home,” she hung up. That was, to say the least, odd. It’s not like she would be mad if she heard what happened with Snow. So what else could it be?  
Only one thing.  
I put the car in drive.  
A couple of hours later I’m back at the flat, slamming the door hard behind me. “Tell me it’s not what I think it is.”  
She looks at me grimly and hands me a piece of paper.  
I warned you.  
Before I got to the flat, I thought to myself, at least I can’t feel any worse. I was wrong. So, so wrong.  
“What do we do,” I ask.  
“We have to find out who’s kidnapping members of the Old Families,” she said.  
“Obviously. How?”  
“We need to know what they have to gain,” she had brought the chalkboard into the living room. She had clearly erased it and began over several times, and now it was filled with a complicated map of names I didn’t recognize.  
“The Old Families have a lot of enemies,” she noticed my glance.  
“No kidding.”  
“But do you know who the biggest enemy is?”  
“You can’t possibly be suggesting that.”  
“The Mage may be dead, but his followers didn’t die with him.”


	15. The Letter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates

15  
Simon  
Not unexpectedly, I haven’t heard from Baz. Also not unexpectedly, Penny has confiscated my phone.  
“I can’t let you do this, Simon,” she said pleadingly. “I can’t let you do this.”  
“Do what? I deserve an explanation,” I sat down, leaning into the couch. I crossed my legs and rested my chin on my arm. “I need an explanation.”  
“I know,” Penny said. She’s said that a lot in the past twenty four hours. “But,” she also said often, at least in fifty different sentences. “He needs to call you.”  
“How is he going to call me if I don’t have my phone?”  
“I’ll give it back if he calls,” she tucked it into her back pocket.   
“Why can’t I call first?” I threw my face into one of the pillows on the couch. Next to it, a plate of scones, tissues, and several copies of romantic comedies sat (Penny said it was ‘toxic’ to watch, but I like to be reminded that there’s still love out there, even if I’m not in it. Well, I’m in it. But he’s not).   
“Eat some scones,” she suggested, pushing the plate towards me.  
“No,” I curled my body around the pillow. “I want to sit and watch movies and cry.”  
“You haven’t eaten since it happened,” she said softly, sitting down next to me. She reached out to touch me like I was a wild animal and she was afraid of making me run off. I pulled away before her hand would have landed on my back, so it hit the cushion instead.  
“I’m really sorry he did this to you, Simon. He’s a wanker.”  
“No he’s not.”  
Penny sighed as a loud metal clunk came from near the front door. A letter had been slid through the mailbox. It lay on the floor, two words in bold print standing out on the Manilla envelope.  
Simon Snow.  
Unmistakably, the same handwriting on the note that announced Mordelia’s capture.  
“Simon,” Penny gasped as I stared at it. What did this mean? What the hell. What the actual fuck. I picked up the letter and ripped it open.  
Meet me at the ice skating rink in one hour or it will never stop.  
I dropped the letter.  
“Simon,” Penelope said, grabbing my arm.  
The world spun.  
“Simon can you hear me?”  
My head met the floor.  
…  
Blurry shapes. Colors. I heard some words but I couldn’t make them out. The world came back into focus.  
“Penny,” I sighed in relief. I was in my bed. “I just had the worst nightmare.”  
A tear slid down her face as I noticed the letter on my night stand. “God,” I hit the pillow with my fist. “What time is it?” I got up too fast and nearly tipped over.  
“It’s only been ten minutes,” Penelope said, struggling to keep me upright. I sat back down and began to put on my socks.   
“I have to go. I have to go, or they will take the members of the Old Families one by one and it will be my fault.” I willed her to understand. I have to save them. They need me.  
“You can’t. They’re never going to stop, they’re just going to keep kidnapping people and you’ll be one of them,” she pushed up her glasses determinedly and I could tell she wasn’t going to budge on this one. Too bad.  
“This isn’t optional, Penny. There are lives on the line.”  
“Why does it always have to be you, Simon?” her lip shook, and my heart panged. “You’re not the Mage’s Heir anymore. You’re not the Chosen One. Why can’t the world just leave you alone?”  
“This is it,” I grabbed her hand.  
“The last time,” she whispered.  
“The last,” I promised.  
I put on my shoes and she let me. She watched me drive away from the window.


	16. Like Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only two chapters left! I would like to thank everyone for reading this and staying with it through the end.  
> The next chapter will seem like the end, BUT THERE IS AN EPILOGUE.   
> I'm going to miss writing this, but I already have a few ideas for another fic in my head, so no worries. Should I write another?  
> As usual, follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates and for snowbaz

16  
Baz  
“Who are the biggest supporters of The Mage?” I crossed my arms and looked at her, eyebrows raised. “I thought everyone hated him.”  
She snorted and I rolled my eyes. “You only think that because your family does. He had a pretty large group before he went into power. It faded a bit, people didn’t like what he was doing and they certainly didn’t like what happened last summer,” I flinched, but she continued. “There’s probably only a small fraction of it left, but there’s still some.”  
“Are there records for this?” If there were records I could pour over them and drown out what I was feeling. I was eager to forget for a little while. His name was pulsing through me. I was going to lose my cereal, no doubt. Maybe after this was over I could explain. His eyes flashed in my mind; misunderstanding and tearful. No. Snow will hate me forever.  
And rightfully so, I was an asshole. I wanted to punch myself. I refrained.  
“There are lots,” she sighed. “That’s the problem. There are piles and piles and stacks of their meetings and beliefs and ideas. It will take forever to sort through it all.”  
“So let’s start now,” I suggested, walking towards the study.  
“You do realize this will take weeks, if not months.”  
“Yes.”  
“You do realize we don’t have that kind of time.”  
“Yes.”  
“What the fuck do you plan on doing, then?”  
I pulled my wand from my back pocket and shook it in her face. “Magic, remember? Fine toothed comb: Mage’s followers!” Books flew around the room in a whirlwind. Fiona ducked to avoid a book and I laughed when another one hit her when she stood up straight. A book may have hit me when I did that. Fiona snorted.  
Suddenly, they all fell to the ground in a heap.  
“This is going to take ages to clean,” she complained, kicking a book.  
But I was staring at the book opened in front of me.  
In it was a list of followers at a meeting.   
Lucy Salisbury  
Christina Moon  
My eyes skipped down the list.  
Kingston Grimm  
“What the fuck,” I held the book out to her and she swore a blue streak. “Who is this?” I threw it when she didn’t answer, and it hit the wall with a loud clap. “Who the fuck is that?”  
“Shit, shit, shit,” she raked her hands through her hair and grabbed fistfuls of it in her hands. “Shit.”  
I grabbed her by the shoulders. “Who.”  
She punched the wall. A small crater appeared. She said nothing.  
“Who.”  
“Kingston Grimm,” she said through gritted teeth. “What a disgusting, foul,” she went off again, swearing for a good minute. She punched the wall again and I let go of her.  
“Fucking spit it out, Fiona.”  
“My brother,” she punched the wall. “Mordelia’s brother. A traitor. A no good, filthy, fucking traitor.”  
“Did you know?”  
“Does it sound like I knew?”  
The door burst open and I nearly jumped two feet in the air. Bunce stood in my door way. Again.  
“Déjà vu, Bunce,” I remarked. She looked like she wanted to slap me. She wasn’t the only one.  
“Simon got a letter from the kidnapper,” The words tumbled out.  
I knew what she was going to say next, but it still hurt to hear.  
“He’s meeting them at the ice rink. He’s going to surrender himself-”  
“I know who it is,” I hear myself say. Blood roars in my ears.  
I push past her.   
“Baz!” Fiona calls from inside.  
“Go get him,” Bunce looked at me, her voice hard. “Bring Simon home.”  
I’m sorry, I think as I drive towards the rink. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it, Snow. I love you, I love you, I love you. I love you so fucking much that it hurts. If you die, I’ll never forgive myself. I’ll never be whole again, because being with you is like magic. You are my magic, Simon Snow.


	17. Home Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS NOT THE LAST CHAPTER  
> I know it sounds like the last chapter, but it is NOT.  
> An epilogue will be posted tomorrow night.  
> I would like to thank anyone and everyone who has commented, left kudos, or read this story. It means a lot to me that people would read my version of the sequel.  
> I'll be posting another fanfiction on this account SOON, but I do not know if it will be a sequel to Like Magic or something else entirely.  
> Follow me on Tumblr @sourcherrysimonsnow for updates and snowbaz   
> Thanks loves!

17  
Simon  
The ice rink is really cold and I forgot a jacket. Did the kidnapper want me to stand in the middle of the rink? I couldn’t imagine them just popping up near the skate rake, saying “Okay, are you surrendering yourself or what?”  
That felt too weird.  
It’s a Sunday, so the rink is closed. No one else is hear, which is weird. Last time, it was full of happy couples, and Baz and I were hand in hand, and I was trying not to fall –  
I closed my eyes and a shaky breath left me. Don’t cry in front of a psychopath, I told myself.  
I walked out on the ice in my pink pineapple socks.  
And immediately regretted it.  
Ice is cold. I know that’s obvious, but it’s really, really, freaking cold. I feel like my feet have never touched anything this cold before.  
“Holy shit,” I hop from foot to foot, which almost results in me falling. I sraihgten myself out just as the door opens. A tall man with dark, scraggly hair walks in.  
“Simon Snow,” he says curtly, walking on the ice. He glances at my socks. “Nice socks.”  
My face reddened. “Who are you?”  
“I see no harm in telling you who I am, I guess,” he sighed. “Though I had hoped you would figure it out by now-”  
“Figure it out?” I interrupted angrily. He did a double take and then instead of strangling me or something, he settled for looking amused. “You left one shitty note that explained nearly nothing.”  
He sighed and paced on the ice. “STUPID,” he yelled. I blinked. “It was never about the notes,” he exasperated. “It was about the crime.”  
I looked at him blankly.  
“God,” he rubbed his face with his hands and then clapped them together. “I took Mordelia from her bedroom. While she and her husband were sleeping.”  
“And?” I asked.  
He let out a string of cuss words. “AND, I’m the only one who could do that. BECAUSE,” he paused like he wanted me to fill the gap. I didn’t. “I know everything about Mordelia. I know she’s a heavy sleeper and sleeps on the first floor in case there’s a fire,” he cast a pointed look at me, and I looked at my feet as I recounted the fire from last year that I had caused.   
“I’m Mordelia’s brother, alright?” He clapped his hands together again, then rushed out, “That’s how I knew everything, that’s how I was able to operate as a double agent for The Mage while I spied on the Old Families. No one ever suspected a Grimm,” he sneered.  
“I know,” came a voice from the entrance.  
It couldn’t be.  
But it was.  
Baz stood in the light, looking as evil and menacing, and well, to be honest, hot as ever.  
“Bugger off, little nephew,” he walked towards me and grabbed my arm. “There’s nothing to see here.”  
Baz whipped out his wand. His lips were forming the words to the spell, but I couldn’t believe what they were saying.  
“DROP DEAD GORGEOUS,” he bellowed at Mordelia’s brother.  
He crumpled to the ground. His head hit the ice with a loud crack. A trickle of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth and his eyes, though they were open, were empty and unseeing.  
“How are we supposed to find them now,” I looked at Baz wildly, but he merely handed me a letter. On it, in rushed script, was an address.  
“Mother managed to send this when Kingston left,” Baz pointed to the dead man, who now had a name.   
“Did you know?”  
“What, that my mother had a traitor brother?” He asked sarcastically, eyes flashing.  
“No, that she had a brother.”  
“Oh. No, I didn’t. He was Stricken,” Baz began to walk away, looking at me from over his shoulder. “See you around, Snow.”  
I abandoned the body and ran after him and he stopped in his tracks, and eyebrow raised. “’See you around,’” I yelled, tears blurring my vision. ”That’s what I get? ‘See you around?’ I love you!”  
He blinked. And blinked again, harder. His mouth formed a perfect O. “You can’t possibly mean that.”  
I crossed my arms. “Try me. Listen, I get it. You said what you did to keep me away right? Well, it didn’t fucking work.”  
He swallowed a smile at my cussing. I continued, “We don’t work separately Baz. We suck at that, I hate to break I to you, but we need each other. I love you, and I always will, and you can’t try to stop me or keep me away. I’m always going to want to get involved.”  
“Always is quite a promise, Snow,” Baz scuffed the ice with his shoe. “Always is a long time.”  
“That’s why I said it,” I willed him to meet my eyes.  
“I love you,” he whispered.  
“I love you,” I whispered back. My heart was pounding in my chest. Baz walked towards me, slowly at first, then broke into a run and almost slipped. He didn’t stop until he had me in his arms, his lips pressed against my eyelids, then my mole, then my chin, and lastly my mouth. I felt whole, like an empty void inside of me had been fixed, the final piece of a puzzle in place, a hole inside my chest filled.  
“I’m still mad at you,” I said breathlessly when we broke apart.  
“I know.”   
“You can’t do this again.”  
“I know. I never will.”  
“I want you to move in,” I went on.  
“I kno-” He cut himself off. “What? Did you just say what I think you did?”  
“Unless you don’t want to,” I said hastily.   
“Of course I’ll move in. Fiona always eats all the crisps anyways.”  
“Come on,” I tugged on his hand. “Let’s go home.”  
He kissed my cheek and intertwined our fingers. “I already am.”


	18. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter.  
> Again, thank you to everyone who supported this work or read it. I never imagined my first fanfiction getting this far. I should have another fanfiction posted and started soon, but it may take a while. So expect it soon...ish.  
> I love you all and this has been a fabulous adventure  
> Carry On <3

Chapter 18: Epilogue  
Baz  
One Year Later

“Holy shit,” Bunce gasped. Her bridesmaid’s dress is a pale blue that looks good against her dark skin. “Baz,” she said, her voice thick. I rolled my eyes. I can hear the tears already. She blew her nose snottily into a handkerchief.  
“I’m not that beautiful, Bunce,” I wave her off, looking at myself in the mirror. My suit is pressed, my hair gelled, (which I hate, my widow’s peak looks gigantic) and a small rose is in my lapel.  
“It’s just,” she wiped her nose. “It’s your wedding day.”  
I grinned and almost touched my hair. Fuck. Don’t touch your hair, my stylist had said over and over. It’ll mess it up. “It’s great isn’t it?” I tried to stop smiling but I couldn’t. “How’s he doing?”  
Bunce snorted. “He’s bouncing off the walls. He’s nearly eaten two dozen scones.”  
I smiled at the thought of Snow stuffing his face with scones.   
“Oh, it’s time,” she pushed me towards the door. “It’s time, it’s time!”  
I bit my lip, anxiety coursing through my veins. “Wait,” I stopped her. “I’m nervous.”  
Bunce laughed. “It’s your wedding day. He loves you,” she looked at me.   
“I know.”  
“And you love him.”  
“More than anything.”  
“Then get out there,” she pushed me towards the door. I walked outside and underneath a flowery bridge thing that had some fancy French name that we were to get married under. I twiddled my thumbs, then decided that looked too weird. I stared at my feet until everyone in the chairs began to rise. I spotted Micah among them, looking at Bunce like she was the most radiant thing in the room. In the back, was Wellbelove. I give her a small smile and she smiled back.  
Bunce walked down the aisle, and then Curtis and Nick, our couple friends.   
Then the orchestra lifted their bows and began to play as Simon walked down the aisle towards me.   
He looked great in his suit, holy shit. I swear, when he dresses up he cleans up nicely. Better than nicely. Wonderfully. He’s practically radiant. No, he is radiant. He’s beautiful.  
And then he’s standing beside me, holding my hands in his.  
“Hey, Snow,” I whispered.  
“Hi,” he said back softly, the sun bouncing off his curls.  
The person marrying us- the name slipped my mind, I was so focused on Snow- said his speech thing and then it was time for us to exchange vows.   
“Simon,” I swallowed. “I never thought that I could be as happy as I am now. I thought the world was an empty, cold place and I was undeserving of anything light or good. But now, here I am. I once said that we would end in flames, that we would kill each other. I’m happy that we settled on marrying instead.”  
He let out a loud, bright laugh.  
“You are the light of my life, my sun, my everything. I will stand by you, through all of your adventures. I will make you scones any time you like, which I realize is all the time.”  
He laughed again, and a tear went down his cheek, but the smile never left his face for a second.  
“No one compares to you. You are like magic,” my voice shook. “I love you. And I know that I’m a vampire and you’re not and we don’t know how it will work.”  
Simon bit his lip and nodded.  
“But we will make it work. I love you,” I finished. It didn’t feel like enough, but Snow is beaming at me like I just gave him a star.  
“Baz,” he began. “Last year, I promised you always, and you said ‘always is quite a promise. Always is a long time.’ I said it then, and I’ll say it again now, I want you always. I never want us to be apart again, I will be by your side until the very end. I hate to break it to you, but it’s a little late to get rid of me.”  
I laughed and kissed him on the cheek. Penny let out a whistle and I winked at her.  
“I’ve easily been obsessed with you since I was eleven,” he said evenly but I let out a little giggle. “But it’s okay,” he said loudly over me. “Because you were also obsessed with me.”  
I know everything about us is unorthodox and a little weird and that’s what I love about us. You bring out the best in me, and I want nothing more from this life then to spend every moment with you,” he looked me in the eyes.   
Fuck, I’m crying. I told myself over and over, Baz, don’t cry like a little shit up there, and now here I am, bawling my eyes out.   
“God, I love you,” I whispered so only he could hear.  
“And I love you,” he tried to wink, but ended up just blinking very weirdly, and I almost died of laughter right then and there.  
“Do you,” the Marrying Guy began.  
“Don’t say it.”  
“Tyrannus-”  
“Don’t say it.”  
“Basilton-”  
“Oh God, here we go.”  
“Grimm- Pitch.”  
“And there it is,” I sighed. Simon had to cover his mouth with his hand to keep from dissolving into giggles.  
“Take Simon Snow to be your lawfully wedded husband?”  
“Fuck yeah,” the words slipped out, and the crowd laughed. “I mean,” I help up a hand. “I do.”  
“Simon Snow, do you take Baz as your lawfully wedded husband?”   
“Are you kidding me? Of course,” he pulled me towards him for a spectacular kiss that may have lasted too long, considering we are in front of lots of family members and friends.  
“I now pronounce you husband and husband, you may now kiss your husband,” the Marrying Guy gave up, throwing his hands in the air.  
We broke off it off, both of us grinning. Beside me, Penelope wept her eyes out.   
“That was a spectacular kiss, Snow,” I remarked.  
“Thank you, I try.”  
“We’re married,” I say.  
“I know.”  
We paused.  
“Wow,” we both said in unison.   
And then I kissed him again, because I could.


End file.
